I'm ten days into my first try at incubating.
We have fifteen eleven-month-old Buff Orpington hens, and one rooster. When a buddy at work heard we had chooks, he said he had an incubator I could borrow. I brought it home last month, and set it up.
It's an old Brower 845. It has quite a touchy adjustment screw. (The thermostat disks might need replacing because the temperature range is about nine degrees.) After a couple weeks fiddling, I finally got the high temp to be about 101°. I put nine eggs in two Thursdays ago.
I dutifully turned the eggs three times a day. Last Thursday, I came home, turned the eggs, and saw the temp was a little too high. So, I turned the screw just a hair. Unfortunately, I must have gone the wrong way.
Before going to bed that night, I went down to turn the eggs again, and the temp was up to 107°! I thought for sure they were cooked. I cooled the 'bator down, reset the thermostat, and decided to let them stay, just in case.
I went down at dinner time tonight to turn the eggs, and took a flashlight with me. They're brown eggs, and our hens get more-than-enough calcium, so it was hard to see much. I could see a good air pocket, and a dark blob taking up half the egg.
The good news is I had at least one egg survive the roasting.
The bad news is I HAD at least one egg survive the roasting.
While I was candling the eggs, I dropped one. It didn't fall far, but it was far enough for it to crack good and start leaking. So, I decided to open it up and take look. There was a tiny, little, naked chick in there, with huge eyes. It looked just like it should have at ten days old, and even flapped it's little wings. I was sad I had killed the poor thing, but encouraged that the others might still be growing.
I'll post pictures when they hatch.
We have fifteen eleven-month-old Buff Orpington hens, and one rooster. When a buddy at work heard we had chooks, he said he had an incubator I could borrow. I brought it home last month, and set it up.
It's an old Brower 845. It has quite a touchy adjustment screw. (The thermostat disks might need replacing because the temperature range is about nine degrees.) After a couple weeks fiddling, I finally got the high temp to be about 101°. I put nine eggs in two Thursdays ago.
I dutifully turned the eggs three times a day. Last Thursday, I came home, turned the eggs, and saw the temp was a little too high. So, I turned the screw just a hair. Unfortunately, I must have gone the wrong way.
Before going to bed that night, I went down to turn the eggs again, and the temp was up to 107°! I thought for sure they were cooked. I cooled the 'bator down, reset the thermostat, and decided to let them stay, just in case.
I went down at dinner time tonight to turn the eggs, and took a flashlight with me. They're brown eggs, and our hens get more-than-enough calcium, so it was hard to see much. I could see a good air pocket, and a dark blob taking up half the egg.
The good news is I had at least one egg survive the roasting.
The bad news is I HAD at least one egg survive the roasting.
While I was candling the eggs, I dropped one. It didn't fall far, but it was far enough for it to crack good and start leaking. So, I decided to open it up and take look. There was a tiny, little, naked chick in there, with huge eyes. It looked just like it should have at ten days old, and even flapped it's little wings. I was sad I had killed the poor thing, but encouraged that the others might still be growing.
I'll post pictures when they hatch.
